Rover 200
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- Rover 200
- 1973-1974
- pen, felt-tip pen and watercolor on paper
- 53,5 × 74 cm
The car as an object and genre is a prime subject for Josef Nöbauer. In 1971, he began with the “Auto Drawings,” whose style and technique were to continue to determine his work. In the limousines and convertibles of preferably American design, meticulously drawn with the finest line, he also lets his erotic fantasy play out. He designs hybrid creatures of car and human or car and animal; instead of the front wheels, two Dalmatians grow out of the limousine, which they powerfully propel forward. The penis of a naked man is replaced by a convertible and the radiator grille of a Jaguar by a vagina. A Buick with swan’s wings on the roof is placed by the artist into an ambience in which a piece of Rome enters into the picture like a snippet; other fast cars, in turn are partially stuck in brick or concrete blocks. The “Auto Drawings” are sexually charged, complex scenarios that achieve their effect not least through the apparent emotional stasis coupled with obsessive meticulousness. At the same time, however, they convey something very intimate and vulnerable, something non-public that seems exposed to the “coldness” of a compulsive, always, medial gaze. S.E.